1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a method of setting specific scan codes for a manual input device.
2. Related Art
A computer usually has a manual input device for the user to input commands or data. The frequently used manual input device is a keyboard or a mouse having a PS2 interface or a USB interface. The user may press keys on the keyboard or the mouse to input the data to the computer or to command the computer.
Usually, the computer includes a central processing unit (CPU), a south bridge chip and a north bridge chip, which serves as a bridge between a peripheral device and the CPU of the computer. Referring to FIG. 1, the south bridge chip 1 includes a scan code register 11, a manual input device input/output buffer 12 and a manual input device controller 13, and a keyboard 14 is used in conjunction with the south bridge chip 1. Wherein the manual input device input/output buffer 12 is used to buffer all input codes generates by keyboard 14, and the manual input device controller judges whether the input code from the manual input device input/output buffer is a scan code, and if the input code is the scan code, it will be transmitted to the scan code register. When the user wants to perform the special function, he or she may press a key or keys on the keyboard 14, and the keyboard 14 generates and outputs a corresponding scan code to the manual input device input/output buffer 12 in the south bridge chip 1. The manual input device input/output buffer 12 buffers the input/output data and transmits the buffered scan code to the scan code register 11.
In addition, the computer has a basic input/output system (BIOS) for saving one special scan code or a plurality of special scan codes corresponding to the special function or the special functions. These special scan codes are loaded into the scan code register 11. The manual input device controller 13 judges whether the scan code generated by the keyboard 14 is the same as the special scan code in the scan code register 11. If the scan code is the same as the special scan code, the computer performs the corresponding special function, such as a wake-up function.
However, the computer does not allow the user to change the initial settings or to set a complicated special function key, and the user may feel inconvenient in use. For example, when the computer enters a sleep state, a specific key is required to wake up the computer. In addition, the user may desire that other users cannot wake up the computer. In this case, the user may set a complicated key group as the wake-up key. Nevertheless, the typical computer cannot obtain the scan code corresponding to the complicated key, and also cannot provide the method of resetting the special function key. Thus, the user cannot set the complicated key as the wake-up key.
In addition, the system chip manufacturer has to know the settings of the assistant manufacturer in order to save the special scan code to the BIOS correctly. Because the system chip manufacturer or the user cannot know the scan code corresponding to each key, it gets more convenient if the assistant manufacturer can change the settings and save the special scan code in the scan code register directly, and the system chip manufacturer also will find out the correct special scan code more efficiently. Besides, according to the conventional technology, the user can only formally use the initial settings of the computer manufacturer and follows the initial settings of the computer, but cannot set the special function key according to his/her requirement.
Therefore, it is an important subject to provide a method of effectively setting specific scan codes for a manual input device.